New Orleans at 300: Cultural Spectacle Vs. Ruling Racism

It’s African and Catholic. Caribbean and European. Our guest Jason Berry’s new book is called City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300. And talk about colorful. For cultural identity, Allen Toussaint clashes with Robert E Lee. New Orleans is a deeply spiritual and noisy culture. Funerals are moments of dancing in the streets. From its founding by whites from France in 1718 through the neglect of poor neighborhoods after the disastrous 2005 flood, according to Jason Berry, its strength is its diversity of folkways. America as a whole can learn from the model.